World War II museum opened in Sochi this weekend. According to vesti.ru, the museum is featuring one of the most complete collections of WW2 awards. All Soviet medals and decorations were donated to the museum by owners or their heirs, and the awards from the foreign countries were purchased in auctions. Among other items are ammunition and paintings from the collection of the businessman Victor Baturin.

The museum is located on the territory of the Sanatorium «Krasmashevsky».

In front to the museum is new statue of Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt meeting in Yalta (another Black Sea coast city, now in Ukraine). The author of the statue is Israeli architect Frank Meisler. Here a couple of pictures from the rian.ru and a video news clip (in Russian) from ntv.ru

With rising interest for the Eastern European destinations among Australian tourists, Expedia Australia (Expedia.com.au) compiled a list of top 10 ‘hidden corners’ of Eastern Europe. I’ll just quote #2 on that list:

2. The resorts of the Black Sea Coast – The Black Sea Coast washes up on the shores of Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine and offers a warm climate, sandy beaches, historical monuments, vineyards and luxurious resorts. Entertainment facilities and sanctuaries; home to hundreds of bird, fish and plant life, also line the coast offering an exciting yet relaxed seaside holiday. With entertainment, food and accommodation at reasonable prices, the Black Sea Coast provides a cost-effective alternative to the well-worn French Riviera. Worthwhile Black Sea resorts include Varna (Bulgaria), Constanta (Romania) and Yalta and Sochi in Russia.

As reported by Russian news agency ITAR-TASS about a week ago, Russia and Ukraine have reached the agreement to build a bridge connecting Russia’s South and Crimea. I’ve written an article about plans for the Kerch Strait Bridge when they were announced by Ukrainian officials last year.

That announcement came short after Russian gov’t officially pledged to develop Sochi as round-year resort no matter how the Olympic bid goes. Many believe having this bridge will help Ukraine get some of the money Russia will pump into the south over the next decade. Anyways, both Russian and Ukrainian prime ministers have confirmed the agreement, and Ukrainian PM, Yulia Timoshenko, announced that the work on this project will start within days.

The first Kerch Strait Bridge connecting Krasnodar Krai and Crimea was built back in 1944, but was destroyed within a year by sea storms, and was never rebuilt. There are several projects for the new bridge in existence, valued between $700 million and one billion dollars.

As a separate, transportation related, piece of good news for Russia’s south – Russian government allocated extra money for reconstruction and maintenance of Russia’s roads. And the largest part of it – 86.7 billion rubbles ($3.7 bln), instead of originally planned 27 billion ($1.1 bln) just this year alone – will go into “Olympic” roads: М4 “Don”, connecting Moscow and Novorossiysk, and М27, Dzhubga – Sochi.